This invention relates to wire connectors and is particularly concerned with a connector that can electrically connect two or more wires to a common terminus of a separate, external device. Connectors of this general description are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,975,939 and 5,531,618. These two patents disclose a twist-on connector having a housing with a metallic spring therein for engaging the exposed conductors of two or more wires inserted into the housing. The spring is locked to the housing. The housing and spring combination is twisted onto the ends of the conductors of the wires being joined. The twisting action causes the spring to bite into the conductors and retain the housing on the conductors. A terminal blade in electrical contact with the spring protrudes through the housing to make the blade available for connection to an external common terminus. Thus, the wires joined in the twist-on housing are connectable to the common terminus.
There may be instances where it is not desirable to use the twist-on connector of the prior art. Installations that require the connector housing to be first attached to the common terminus of the external device and then connected to the wires cannot use a twist-on connector. This is because the twisting action needed to lock the prior art connector to the wires cannot be done if the connector""s terminal blade is already fixed to the external device. Also, the prior art connector works only with stripped wires, which may not always be convenient. Furthermore, twist-on connectors have inherent limits in the number of wires they can accommodate. The present invention provides connector constructions that overcome these situations.
The present invention is a wire connector having a conductive clip with fingers inside an insulative housing. A conductive extension is in permanent engagement with the clip and extends out of the housing where it is connectable to a terminus of an external device. The extension may be in the form of a terminal blade or a pigtail. The clip fingers engage the conductors of wires inserted into the housing to provide both mechanical and electrical connection. The fingers may be arranged for push-in connection to the stripped ends of incoming wires or for insulation displacement connection to unstripped wires.